Also see:     
AOL/Microsoft-Hotmail Preventing Delivery of Truthout Communications    [

Also see below:     
How the Senators Voted    [

    Senate Urges Bush to Declare Iran Guard a Terrorist Group
    By David M. Heszenhorn
    The New York TImes

    Thursday 27 September 2007

    Washington - The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday urging the Bush administration to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, and lawmakers briefly set aside partisan differences to approve a measure calling for stepped-up diplomacy to forge a political solution in Iraq.

    Since last month, the White House has been weighing whether to declare the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group or to take a narrower step focusing on only the Guard's elite Quds Force. Either approach would signal a more confrontational posture by declaring a part of the Iranian military a terrorist operation.

    Appearances by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday at Columbia University and on Tuesday at the United Nations, where he said Iran would ignore Security Council resolutions about its nuclear program, seemed to toughen the resolve of Senate Democrats, who had been hesitant to take an overly aggressive stance.

    The Senate resolution, which is not binding, also calls on the administration to impose economic sanctions on Iran.

    Even if the White House took that step, policy experts said, it was unclear that it would be anything more than a symbolic gesture without the cooperation of nations that, unlike the United States, still had substantial business dealings with Iran.

    The measure, proposed by Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who usually votes with Republicans on war issues, relied heavily on testimony earlier this month by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the top American political official in Baghdad.

    In negotiations, two crucial paragraphs were deleted from the measure in an attempt to reassure critics who had said the proposal seemed to urge the Bush administration to deal with Iran on a war footing.

    Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, a Democrat and the majority leader, voted for the proposal after initially urging caution. "We certainly don't want to be led down the path, slowly but surely, until we wind up with the situation like we have in Iraq today," he said Tuesday. "So I am going to be very, very cautious."

    Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, warned Tuesday that an early draft of the proposal "could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war."

    "What do we do with terrorist organizations if they are involved against us?" Mr. Webb asked in a speech on Tuesday. "We attack them."

    Even with the two paragraphs deleted, Mr. Webb voted against the resolution. So did a number of other Democrats who are among the harshest critics of the Bush administration's handling of the war. The measure passed by a vote of 76 to 22.

    Among those voting against it was Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who said he feared that the administration could use the measure to justify military action against Iran.

    In a separate vote, by 75 to 23, the Senate approved a resolution by Mr. Biden calling for greater diplomatic efforts with Iraq, and in particular, a focus on partitioning Iraq into federal regions in hopes of reaching a political solution and more swiftly ending the war.

    While Democrats sought to portray the vote on the Biden proposal as a potential breakthrough in reaching other legislative compromises that might force President Bush to shift his war strategy, Republicans quickly made clear that this was not so.

    Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, praised Mr. Biden's measure but also predicted that any effort by Senate Democrats to dictate war strategy to the president would fail. "We will not see a measure reach 60 votes," he said, the number needed to overcome a filibuster.

    Mr. Biden's resolution called on the United States "to actively support a political settlement in Iraq based on the final provisions of the Constitution of Iraq," which would essentially divide the country into loosely allied, semi-autonomous regions.

    And it said the United States should call on the international community to help and on Iraq's neighbors not to "intervene in or destabilize" Iraq.

    In an interview, Mr. Biden said such an approach would be a striking shift from the Bush administration's insistence on a strong and unified Iraqi federal government and would permit a quicker withdrawal of American troops. "This is a fundamentally different goal, and it requires fundamentally fewer American forces," he said.

    Go to Original

    US Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 1st Session

    As compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

    Vote Summary

    Question: On the Amendment (Kyl Amdt. No. 3017 as Modified )
    Vote Number: 349
    Vote Date: September 26, 2007, 12:44 PM
    Required For Majority: 3/5
    Vote Result: Amendment Agreed to
    Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 3017 to S.Amdt. 2011 to H.R. 1585 (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008)
    Statement of Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate regarding Iran.
    Vote Counts: YEAs 76 NAYs 22 Not Voting 2

    Alphabetical by Senator Name:
    Akaka (D-HI), Yea
    Alexander (R-TN), Yea
    Allard (R-CO), Yea
    Barrasso (R-WY), Yea
    Baucus (D-MT), Yea
    Bayh (D-IN), Yea
    Bennett (R-UT), Yea
    Biden (D-DE), Nay
    Bingaman (D-NM), Nay
    Bond (R-MO), Yea
    Boxer (D-CA), Nay
    Brown (D-OH), Nay
    Brownback (R-KS), Yea
    Bunning (R-KY), Yea
    Burr (R-NC), Yea
    Byrd (D-WV), Nay
    Cantwell (D-WA), Nay
    Cardin (D-MD), Yea
    Carper (D-DE), Yea
    Casey (D-PA), Yea
    Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
    Clinton (D-NY), Yea
    Coburn (R-OK), Yea
    Cochran (R-MS), Yea
    Coleman (R-MN), Yea
    Collins (R-ME), Yea
    Conrad (D-ND), Yea
    Corker (R-TN), Yea
    Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
    Craig (R-ID), Yea
    Crapo (R-ID), Yea
    DeMint (R-SC), Yea
    Dodd (D-CT), Nay
    Dole (R-NC), Yea
    Domenici (R-NM), Yea
    Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
    Durbin (D-IL), Yea
    Ensign (R-NV), Yea
    Enzi (R-WY), Yea
    Feingold (D-WI), Nay
    Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
    Graham (R-SC), Yea
    Grassley (R-IA), Yea
    Gregg (R-NH), Yea
    Hagel (R-NE), Nay
    Harkin (D-IA), Nay
    Hatch (R-UT), Yea
    Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
    Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
    Inouye (D-HI), Nay
    Isakson (R-GA), Yea
    Johnson (D-SD), Yea
    Kennedy (D-MA), Nay
    Kerry (D-MA), Nay
    Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay
    Kohl (D-WI), Yea
    Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
    Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
    Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
    Leahy (D-VT), Nay
    Levin (D-MI), Yea
    Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
    Lincoln (D-AR), Nay
    Lott (R-MS), Yea
    Lugar (R-IN), Nay
    Martinez (R-FL), Yea
    McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
    McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
    McConnell (R-KY), Yea
    Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
    Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
    Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
    Murray (D-WA), Yea
    Nelson (D-FL), Yea
    Nelson (D-NE), Yea
    Obama (D-IL), Not Voting
    Pryor (D-AR), Yea
    Reed (D-RI), Yea
    Reid (D-NV), Yea
    Roberts (R-KS), Yea
    Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
    Salazar (D-CO), Yea
    Sanders (I-VT), Nay
    Schumer (D-NY), Yea
    Sessions (R-AL), Yea
    Shelby (R-AL), Yea
    Smith (R-OR), Yea
    Snowe (R-ME), Yea
    Specter (R-PA), Yea
    Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
    Stevens (R-AK), Yea
    Sununu (R-NH), Yea
    Tester (D-MT), Nay
    Thune (R-SD), Yea
    Vitter (R-LA), Yea
    Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
    Warner (R-VA), Yea
    Webb (D-VA), Nay
    Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
    Wyden (D-OR), Nay